VA rating for anxiety and depression: what each % needs

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A lot of veterans come to this question after reading a decision letter and finding one percentage where they expected two. They filed for anxiety and depression. The letter came back with a single number and one diagnostic code they didn't recognize.

That's not an error, and it isn't the VA shortchanging anyone. It's how the mental health schedule is built. Here's what the percentages actually mean, what each one asks for, and where the number really comes from.

What are the VA ratings for anxiety and depression?

Both are rated under the General Rating Formula for Mental Disorders, at 38 CFR 4.130. The formula has six levels, and it's the same formula used for PTSD, insomnia and every other psychiatric condition.

The code changes. The scale doesn't. What decides your percentage is not which of these labels is on your file - it's how much the symptoms cost you at work and at home.

What each rating level actually asks for

This is the part worth reading slowly, because most veterans are rated lower than their records support, and the reason is almost always that the file describes symptoms instead of describing losses.

The 10% route people miss: if medication is holding your symptoms down, that on its own supports 10 percent. The criteria say so directly. A veteran whose anxiety is managed by a daily prescription is not a veteran with no condition.

The gap between 50 and 70 is the one that changes a life financially, and it turns on the phrase "deficiencies in most areas". Most, not all. Work and family and mood is most areas. That threshold gets missed constantly, because a doctor's notes record the symptom and never record that the veteran hasn't held a job for two years.

What each level pays in 2026

Monthly, tax-free, for a veteran with no dependents. Dependents add to the amount from 30 percent upward.

The step from 50 to 70 is the largest single jump on this scale: $1,132.90 against $1,808.45. That gap is the size of the difference a well-written statement can make, and it's why the next section matters more than this one.

Why filing both never gives you two ratings

The VA does not pay separate ratings for anxiety and depression. It evaluates every mental health diagnosis you have together and assigns one rating for the whole picture.

The rule behind it is anti-pyramiding, at 38 CFR 4.14: the same symptom cannot be compensated under two codes. Anxiety and depression share most of their symptoms - poor sleep, difficulty concentrating, low mood, irritability - so rating them separately would pay for the same sleep loss twice.

What this changes about how you file:

• Listing more diagnoses doesn't raise the percentage. Severity does.
• The VA is required to consider your claim as covering any mental health condition your symptoms support, whatever label you wrote on the form.
• If you're already rated for one mental health condition, a new diagnosis is an increase request, not a second claim.

The mental health rating guide covers the one-rating rule in full, including what happens when a new diagnosis arrives years after the first.

Which diagnosis should anchor the claim

Since only one rating comes out, the practical question is which condition carries the strongest evidence in.

• PTSD needs a verified in-service stressor. Straightforward with a combat record. Difficult without one.
• Anxiety or depression can be direct, if there's in-service treatment on record - a visit to mental health, a note in your service treatment records, a documented episode.
• Anxiety or depression can be secondary to a physical condition the VA already accepts. Chronic pain, tinnitus, a back injury, sleep apnea. This route needs no stressor at all, because what's being proved is that the accepted condition caused or worsened the mental health decline.

That third route is the one most often overlooked, and for a veteran with no documented stressor it's frequently the strongest path. It usually needs a nexus letter - a medical opinion connecting the two.

What the evidence has to show

The criteria measure function, not feelings. So the file has to describe what you can no longer do.

Write it in losses, not symptoms:

• Not "I feel anxious in crowds." Instead: "I have not been inside a grocery store since 2023. My wife does the shopping."
• Not "I have trouble sleeping." Instead: "I sleep three to four hours most nights. I was written up twice last year for lateness."
• Not "I get panic attacks." Instead: "Three to four panic attacks a week. Two happened at work, and I left early both times."

Alongside your own statement, the things that carry weight:

1. Ongoing therapy or psychiatry records, ideally with tracked scores over time - PHQ-9 for depression, GAD-7 for anxiety.
2. Statements from a spouse, parent or friend describing the change in you and what a bad day looks like. A buddy statement from someone who lives with it often says what a clinical note never does.
3. Work records - written warnings, accommodations, reduced hours, terminations tied to symptoms.

The condition pages hold the full criteria and the evidence checklist for each: anxiety and depression.

Bottom line

Anxiety and depression are rated on one scale, at one of six levels, under one combined rating no matter how many diagnoses are on your file. The percentage comes from how much of your life the condition has taken, and the file has to say that out loud, because nobody at the VA is going to infer it.

If the decision letter came back lower than your records support, that's a normal outcome with a normal fix, and it's usually about what the evidence describes rather than what you have.

Our free scan reads your conditions and shows what evidence each one needs before you file. It's about 11 minutes: start the free scan.

And if today is a bad day: 988, then press 1. Or text 838255. Any hour, no enrollment needed.

Sources: 38 CFR 4.130 - General Rating Formula for Mental Disorders, 38 CFR 4.14 - avoidance of pyramiding, VA.gov - disability compensation rates, VA mental health services.